Gritting her teeth against the dull, lingering ache in her skull, Asteria summoned her runes. She forced her eyes to focus on the text, ready to read the ancient truths she was apparently Fated to receive.
[Nether, the Daemon of Destiny, was also recognized as the Daemon of Choice or the Prince of the Underworld.
Nether was a Daemon of craftsmanship, who constructed many grand creations out of whatever materials he had on hand.
The Daemon of Choice was the very first of his kind to spill the blood of the Gods during the cataclysmic Doom War.
Queen of Nightmare, not enough information is presently known about this Daemon to fully reveal his hidden truths!"
'Fate this, Fate that,' Asteria thought, her irritation flaring as she closed the ledger. 'What exactly do you want from me, Spell?'
The familiar voice of the Nightmare Spell chimed directly in her mind, answering her silent grumble.
[To seek the truths of your kin, Queen of Nightmare.]
Asteria's eyes widened in genuine surprise. She had absolutely not expected the cold, detached Spell to respond to her internal complaints — even if she is its blessed.
'Fine then. I'll play along with your games...' She paused, her sour mood shifting slightly as she looked at the situation from a different angle. 'If this Truth is anything like the one I completed for Hope, I might be in for another massive payday.'
Shaking her head to clear the fog, a frustrating realization hit her. 'Even if I currently possess the entire dictionary of Hope's Teachings inside my brain, I still don't have the faintest clue how to actually activate the sorcery.'
"Abominable creature of war, this is where our paths must part," Eurys spoke, his skeletal shoulders rising and falling in a nonchalant shrug. "If you venture any further down here, you will find yourself walking directly into the embrace of Shadow. If your goal is to follow the footprints of our foolish, ancient rebellion, you should continue along that path instead."
He raised a slender, bleached finger, pointing toward a dark, contrasting opening in the cavern wall, completely opposite to the direction of where the Shadow Realm supposedly lay.
Asteria let out a slow, quiet sigh. The air was freezing, and her skin prickled with the distinct sensation of invisible eyes watching her from the deep gloom — a density of blackness that her vision simply couldn't pierce.
"Thank you, Eurys," she said, forcing her voice to remain steady. "I sincerely hope you find some semblance of rest after enduring your thousands-year curse."
The skeleton did not offer a reply. He simply turned his back on her, most likely ignoring her words or silently mocking her attempt to be polite to someone who clearly despised her kind.
Turning her gaze back toward the dark path Eurys had indicated, Asteria felt a cold wave of terror wash over her. She could barely see an inch past her own boots, and the oppressive silence of the Underworld made it feel as though she were being actively hunted by unknown horrors lurking within the lightless abyss.
She was quite frankly terrified.
Shuddering against the chill, Asteria took her first step forward, beginning a long, perilous journey into a realm she did not understand.
As she navigated the uneven floor of the dark cavern, the silence grew suffocating. Suddenly, a strange, heavy pressure settled over her chest. Her soul felt as though invisible, icy hands had wrapped around it, slowly tightening their grip until it was difficult to draw breath.
HISS...
The Queen of Nightmare froze mid-stride, her muscles locking. 'What in the name of the Spell was that?'
Her heart raced frantically against her ribs, her skin crawling as the crushing weight on her soul intensified. She was utterly terrified. With no targets in sight, she could only stand her ground in the dark, gripping the pommel of her blade as she waited for the hidden danger to manifest.
And something did emerge from the blackness. Not fast and not with hostility, either. But something akin to curiosity.
The creature of darkness slithered across the stone floor toward her, its shadowy mass gradually rising to mimic a humanoid shape. It possessed no defining features — no eyes, no mouth, no clothes. It was a blank, shifting silhouette that perfectly matched what could be called human; but it was far too alien to be called human.
Asteria held her breath as the shadow continued its slow inspection. It glided right up to her feet and began to climb up her gold armour, encasing her lithe frame in a suffocating, unnatural heat. It felt exactly like being trapped underwater, her lungs burning as she drowned in the dark. For a terrifying second, she felt as though her entire being and identity was going to be swallowed — absorbed by the darkness.
But that did not happen.
The creature of darkness smoothly slid off her body, pooling back onto the grey soil. When it raised itself to its full height once more, its form had altered. It now perfectly mirrored Asteria's exact posture and shape — as if she had been recast entirely out of pure, liquid shadow without a single drop of colour or light left in her texturing.
Asteria swallowed hard, a cold sweat breaking out across her forehead.
'If that isn't the definition of terrifying, I don't know what is,' she thought, her voice internally was trembling. 'They don't seem to want to murder me just yet, but I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to fight a creature made out of literal darkness.'
The blackened copy of herself turned away, beginning to stride deeper into the cavern with an air of absolute confidence. It walked with a lofty, elegant stride, its head held high, until it suddenly paused. The shadow turned its head back toward Asteria and shrugged its shoulders, as if asking: "Why are you standing there staring?"
As Asteria forced herself to follow the shadow's path, she encountered dozens more of the strange entities. Some of them remained perfectly static along the dark walls, their invisible eyes tracking her movements with cold curiosity. Others simply drifted past her, paying absolutely no mind to her presence.
But as she pushed deeper into the blackened world, the nature of the creatures shifted.
The next group she encountered did unfortunately not move with curiosity or kindness; they bristled with immediate, instinctual hostility, treating her as an unwelcome invader. And technically, she was.
Asteria felt her skin turn hot as adrenaline flooded her system. Her heart hammered wildly, and her limbs began to shake against her will. The ambient darkness around her was changing, growing heavier, thicker, and far more dense until it felt like a weight pressing against her eyes. Even with everything Asteria had, most notably her [Glass Eyes] allowing her a sliver of vision, it wasn't enough anymore.
She was going blind. Blind in what could be — and is — called a Death Zone.
FFFFSSS…
The deep darkness surrounding her began to move in the masses — in massive, horrifying waves. The black air twisted and turned, shaping itself into aggressive figures and unimaginable, shifting horrors.
"Right, yeah, brilliant plan. Just force me to fight literal darkness, why don't you... Damnation!" Asteria grumbled, clenching her jaw tightly as she dropped into a combat stance.
The first shadow creature lunged out of the blackness. Its dark, razor-sharp claws ripped through the air, digging deep into her exposed shoulder. Asteria snarled, swinging her starlight blade in a desperate arc to deflect the strike, but her weapon passed cleanly through the creature's torso as if it were nothing but smoke. The moment her blade cleared the mist, the shadow solidified again, its claws tearing further into her flesh.
"Yeah, spectacular job, me," she muttered to herself, wincing as she retreated. "March straight down under a mountain and think its a great idea to fight something you can't even touch…"
She spoke aloud simply to keep her panic from paralyzing her mind, desperately searching her memories for anything that could grant her salvation. The hostile, darkness-born entities did not give her time to think. The next few creatures launched themselves at her from multiple angles, seeking to maim, tear, and execute her — and every single strike found its mark.
Asteria stumbled backward, gripping her left wrist where a deep, ragged gash was pouring fresh blood onto the stone. Her fingers were trembling, her grip on the [Sentinel's Heart] loosening as waves of severe pain rippled through her body. Worse than the physical wounds was the excruciating, icy grip tightening around her soul, coupled with the heavy beads of sweat pouring down her face like a waterfall.
'Think, think, think, Asteria!' she chided herself frantically, hoping for a sudden revelation that would award her salvation — or perhaps she'd have her own Prince Charming, a knight in shining armour to save the day. 'How do you eradicate something created entirely out of darkness when you want to kill it? I don't even have any light…'
Suddenly, her glassy, violet eyes widened in the dark. 'Wait. Light. I need light!'
Asteria knew a thing or two about the properties of light.
It had been one of the very first things she had remembered within the vast library of Hope's Teachings. The specific rune for light was recorded as something as radiant as a midday sun and as holy as a priest
In the runic language, the rune for light carried a definitive meaning: "to cleanse, to liberate, to abolish darkness and malice." In simpler terms, it was the symbol of a savior.
Unfortunately, to utilize it, Asteria had to somehow carve that exact rune onto the ground whilst trapped in total darkness. She couldn't see her hands, she was being continuously attacked from every direction, and she had to carve the lines with perfect precision. If she ruined a single stroke, she had a feeling it would create a very, very wrong effect.
Shamefully dodging and weaving through the incoming strikes of the shadow thralls was an ugly and frantic process. It was a style of fighting that absolutely did not fit someone carrying the title of a Queen — even if she was merely a Queen over Nightmares.
"Ack!" she choked out, her boots slipping as she threw herself to the side.
An ink-black claw whistled through the air, narrowly missing her throat. As she hit the cold grey soil, Asteria did not try to stand back up. Instead, she gripped the blade of her sword and dragged the reinforced tip through the soft dirt of the Underworld, using her memory to guide her hand as she began to scratch out her light-bringing hope.
'I never imagined I'd attempt to cast sorcery based entirely on a gut feeling and a prayer, but here we are!' she thought, a manic, desperate laugh bubbling up her throat as she ignored the agony coursing through every fiber of her being.
Her logic on the matter was extraordinarily simple. Thanks to her Aspect Legacy, she knew the exact form of almost every single rune in existence and what their core concepts represented. However, she had no practical experience, what the runes created nor did she know how to chain multiple runes together to create complex effects like Noctis could.
But she understood the core rule of Runic Sorcery: if she drew the lines flawlessly, imbued her essence into the runes, and held a laser-focused intent in her mind — she'd hopefully succeed.
Breathing heavily through her nose, her body covered in fresh lacerations, Asteria completed the final stroke of the runic array. She couldn't see the lines in the dirt, but a sudden, instinctual pull in her gut told her the shape was whole.
With a final burst of essence to her feet, Asteria launched herself forward, planting her bare palms flat against the cold, carved soil. She released herself unto the world, channeling her essence directly into the rune that depicted the True Name of Light.
The sensation was entirely unusual. It felt incredibly warm, but it also felt as though a heavy valve had been opened within her chest. A massive, continuous torrent of her essence flowed down her arms, draining some of her cores as it saturated the dirt below.
Suddenly, a brilliant, deafening flash of white light erupted from the ground. The illumination was so sudden and intense that her pupils constricted instantly, a sharp sting causing her to shield her eyes.
Asteria had created Light in a lightless world.
Asteria had successfully utilized Runic Sorcery for the very first time in her life.
She had succeeded.
The hostile creatures of the dark shrieked, their shifting forms shrinking back in absolute terror. Asteria could hear them hissing and writhing as the brilliant, golden radiance expanded through the cavern like a miniature sun, burning away the oppressive black fog.
It was... beautiful. A profound, overwhelming sense of fulfillment washed over her as she witnessed the ancient runes manifest before her eyes. It was the exact type of sorcery she had dreamed about when she was a child living in the outskirts — a power that felt truly magical, far more than her aspect abilities.
The powers of the Queen of Nightmare were useful, but they weren't grand. She had always secretly wanted to summon storms, to burn enemy legions to ashes, and to fashion something incredible out of nothing. In short, she wanted to wield the power of a classical fantasy mage.
"I can actually do it," she whispered, a wide, genuine grin breaking through the dirt and blood on her face. A deep, comforting warmth settled into her heart, completely banishing the icy, malicious grip that had threatened to shatter her soul.
The Spell's voice echoed rapidly in her ears.
[You have destroyed a Creature of True Darkness: Thrall of the Underworld.]
[You have destroyed a Creature of True Darkness: Thrall of the Underworld.]
[You have destroyed a Creature of True Darkness: Thrall of the Underworld.]
"Haha! I did it! I actually killed monsters that couldn't be killed by conventional means!" she laughed aloud, her voice echoing triumphantly down the illuminated pathways. Tears of sheer relief and joy welled in her eyes as she celebrated achieving something she had deemed an absolute impossibility only moments before.
As her vision adjusted to the brilliant, glowing light she had anchored to the soil, Asteria cast her gaze deeper down the passage.
The light cut through the remaining darkness, revealing an incredible, jaw-dropping sight in the distance.
Structures. Buildings. An entire, sprawling city.
The architecture was carved directly into the ancient stone of the Underworld, a silent metropolis fashioned in the deep dark for those who lived without a sun.
This was a silent kingdom that Nether, the Prince of the Underworld, had constructed with his own hands before the world fell.